Category Archives: Travelling

Lipstuck

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I was hanging out with Kevin and Choon How at A&W One Utama, having root beer (because stock of RM1 beer for Oktoberfest was finished early). We sat nearer to the mall, where we could watch chicks pass. A familiar face passed by. Melissa Maureen!

I waved at her. She was going to get a drink at A&W and hang out there. She was with her friend, some chick who was vaguely familiar.

“Who was that chick ah?” Kevin asked.
“Melissa Maureen? From Pond’s Table For Two and Gol & Gincu?”
“Oh my God! I know her!” (Kevin jumped out of his seat and ran to catch up with her at the queue)

Yes, Kevin and Choon How have trouble remembering faces.

Turns out they used to know each other from 7-8 years ago, and she used to play bass for him!

Well, at least Melissa recognized me (though she didn’t recognize Kevin initially…)

Then it struck me why the other chick was vaguely familiar. She was in Gol & Gincu too! So when we left A&W we passed by their table. Kevin told Melissa about his band. Meanwhile, I asked the vaguely familiar chick, “Heyyy you were in Gol & Gincu right?”

“Yeah…”
“Uh… I remember you were in it, but I can’t remember who you played…”

Yes, Albert says stupid insensitive things often. He just does not blog about it often enough.

As we went downstairs, Kevin asked who the vaguely familiar chick was. “Oh don’t worry, we can Google her.” We had a good laugh.

It was only hours later, at home, that I realized why I couldn’t match her to any of the many futsal-playing girls in the movie. She wasn’t the tomboy, no… she wasn’t the one with domestic problems, she wasn’t the one with a disapproving boyfriend, no… she was… uh…

She was the lead actress!

Yes, I believe Kevin and Choon How’s blurness is contagious.

Oh man. Now I wonder what they must’ve talked about when we left. “How can he not remember me? I’m the star! The cheerleader-turned-futsal player! I got the most screentime!”

Nur Fazura, if you are reading this, I would like to apologize. I wish I did have real beer to be used as an excuse for my absent-mindedness.

P.S. Gol & Gincu was a recent Malaysian teenybopper movie that amazed me in many ways, because it took a American teenage movie and turned it Malaysian. The film quality was all there! The sound was good, the lighting was good and not some TV1 drama, Putri’s room was bright and IKEA-like, and product placement was everywhere! I was damn proud that there was a Malaysian movie reaching such commercial-looking standards. While Nur Fazura’s initially bimbo-ish character sounded unnatural, she picked up soon; however, Rafidah (of 3R) had horribly long mini-lecture sentences that made it sound like she wasn’t fluent in Malay.

Waking Up To October

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What: HITZ.TV Street Party
When: 1st October 2005, 3pm till midnight
Where: Berjaya Times Square driveway
How much: It’s outside so it’s gotta be free
Who: Dragon Red, Admonition, Media Puppets, Doul, Dyana, James Baum, Deja Voodoo Spells, Twilight Action Girl, Edge Of Fire, Estranged, Special Force Dator, CD Naz, Throne Away, KL Embassy, DJ Ken & DJ Kidd, Love Me Butch, Siarra, Evolution & Azlif AF3, Vince, Frequency Cannon, Gerhana Ska Cinta, Curtis Blues Review, K-Town Clan, Bau, Ahli Fiqir, One Buck Short, Teh Tarik Crew, Disagree, Lo, Syko-G + Glow shufflers

You bet I’ll be going, and to survey the price of the Canon Powershot A520. Why that? It’s the smallest manual-control camera (the upcoming 7.1 megapixel A620 is the size of the A95 as it uses 4 AA batteries) and it uses 2 AA batteries and SD card. I could also get the nifty wireless flash, the HF-DC1, for better-lighted shots.

What: Doppelganger open mike/open stage
When: 2nd October 2005
Where: La Bodega KL, 31 Tengkat Tong Shin, Kuala Lumpur
How much: Free admission from 7:30pm till 11pm
Who: Jasemaine Gan, featuring Ady, Faiey, Jaz

If I’m not done looking for camera prices I’ll head over to Bintang Walk on Sunday again.

The A-list

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So I bumped into Azwin Andy of Estranged (and 8tv’s Latte@8 Drummer Boy and Tak Nak poster boy) once again. He said, “so I bump into you again.”

Then I wondered if there was any karmaic connection between him and Az, who I used to bump into back when he was in Malaysia. So what did they have in common? Maybe it’s their height, or that they are in the underground music scene, or…

I think I’ll just elaborate on why while taking a shower, I figured it was because their names started with the letter A.

13.2% of my Friendster friends have names starting with A. 12.5% of my mobile phone contact numbers are the A list.

Now the question is, are there really that much more people starting with A, or are people whose names start with A more likely to go out? An Adam would get an invitation to a party maybe 2 hours before a Michael. Don’t forget that there’s time involved calling/messaging. By the time you reach Michael, your initial come-on-let’s-go-coaxing-power is diminished with Michael. It would also be more likely that a Alvin snapped up that other free invite of yours to a party. This Alvin then goes to the party, and other people meet him, they exchange numbers, and once again, the A-list prevails.

If you are a happening socialite with plenty of people inviting you to free beer (and you’re a guy!) and your name doesn’t start with A and you believe my theory is wack because I’m writing this after being invited to an uh… uh… some event with free beer, post a reply to this blog entry.

…then I could laugh at you for having no life and having free time to read my blog instead of going out to party.

…oh wait, don’t boycott me, I want to shake your hand and thank you for replying.

Rock me out before September ends

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What: The Longest Yard charity screening
When: 11am, Saturday September 17th, 2005
Where: TGV Sunway Pyramid
How much: RM20, half goes to charity, but you also get goodie bags, Pitabery fruit juice, Galaxie and some other free stuff lah.
Who: Voluptuous lipped Amber Chia will be there. I know the organizer so a picture can be arranged!

What: Poseidon album launch (also help to raise money for the late Reuben Lim)
When: 2-8pm, Sunday September 18th, 2005
Where: Paul’s Place, Old Klang Road
How much: RM12, comes with a free drink
Who: Vespertine, Frequency Cannon, Poseidon, Fuselage, Pallid Sky, Neuphoria, Stonebay, Infiltrated, Auburn, Moodbox, Heaven’s A Dream, Borange, Inverted Coma, Warve

Yes obviously I am going for both.

Apparently there’s also the musiccanteen.com birthday bash and the @19 Records Battle It Out finale (at UiTM Shah Alam) on the 18th, but those two are uncertainties.

To sit here in a two seater

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You know the general social rule that if there is a passenger in the car, one of them has to sit in the front passenger seat? If the front passenger got off, another passenger was to get in front. I never quite knew that until I started working, since my family never enforced such a ridiculous rule. In fact, the front passenger seat was almost always empty!

But first, why is it necessary? To provide accompaniment for the driver. To avoid making the driver feel like he/she is driving a limosine. To not have to ask the passenger behind to move his head so he can reverse.

One day my mom dropped me off at the bus stop where my colleagues were waiting. As my mom used the front passenger seat to store her stuff, my siblings and I would always sit behind in the van. When I got off, my bitchy colleague was incensed because of my apparently rude seating position.

My parents were practical people, and so we never practiced the ritual of having a front passenger get off, and a rear passenger get out and get on the front passenger seat.

I’d still comply to the social ritual when not with family. However, I thought this such ritual (or at least, the re-occupation of the front seat) on a two-door, four-seater car was stupid.

Supposing there were two passengers each getting off at different locations, and the one to get off first was behind. How do you get both out of the car?

  1. Driver stops at first location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
  2. Front passenger folds seat to the front so that rear passenger may exit
  3. Rear passenger exits
  4. Front passenger folds seat back
  5. Front passenger sits down and closes door
  6. Driver stops at second location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
  7. Front passenger closes door

Supposing you got smart and swapped passenger positions:

  1. Driver stops at first location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
  2. Front passenger folds seat to the front so that rear passenger may exit
  3. Rear passenger exits
  4. Rear passenger folds seat back
  5. Rear passenger gets in front seat and closes door
  6. Driver stops at second location; (formerly) rear passenger opens the door and gets out
  7. (Formerly a) passenger closes door

Both take the same number of steps, but the second case can be optimized:

  1. Driver stops at first location; front passenger opens the door and gets out
  2. (Formerly) front passenger closes door
  3. On the drive to the second location, the rear passenger folds the seat to the front so that he/she may exit, so this isn’t really a time-consuming step
  4. Driver stops at second location; rear passenger opens the door and gets out
  5. (Formerly a passenger) folds seat back and closes door

This can be useful when the driver is in a rush, or when you’re on the wrong lane to drop off passengers. Are you going to endanger their lives by making them do a switcheroo while avoiding traffic? Think about it.

Picture This August

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Here’s to August 2005. Yeah. Tales with pictures. Obscene amounts of them.

4th August 2005

I headed to Hartamas Square for the first ever We Are One gig, held every Thursday. The grand openers were Soft Touch, who wasn’t soft or acoustic enough for what was presumed to be an acoustic set.


This picture was taken moments before all electricity in Hartamas Square was gone.

Soft Touch, I realized, was the missing half of a fully produced rock band – they were the falsetto, the organ, the light rhythm guitar in the background. Take three raw rockers to collaborate, and you have a full-sounding album.


An hour later, power was restored, and Broken Scar played his last gig before going on a month-long hiatus.


Flatline had some interesting effects added to their melodic rock mix – the guitar synth (far left) was one of them.


Quizzicals, an up and coming vocal harmony band, sounded good. They had good originals and very good stage presence, but for some reason, I lost a bit of respect when they decided to cover their mentor’s song to the dot (V.E. – Pop Ye Ye).

6th August 2005


I headed to UiTM to be a guest judge at the “At 19 Records & Xfresh presents Battle It Out“. I even wrote a review with my rants on emo bands. But hey, check out the 27 fret Samick electric guitar I was drooling over at Do Re Mi Music. Sure, you can’t really have any precision up there, and there’s only space for two pickups, but there’s a coil tap switch so you have more options.

I wandered around town aimlessly after that, landing in KLCC Convention Centre for the PIKOM PC Fair 2005. I bumped into Loco, who was emceeing at the Samsung booth.

“The Samsung booth? Damn, that’s the one with the most chicks!”
“Eh yeah! When I came in the morning, I was thinking they were like normal only, but I walked around, and thus concluded that yes, my Samsung booth had the most chicks.”


We then went to Avenue K (next to KLCC), and checked out the haze. He sat down outside Avenue K and lit a cigarette when a security guard came up to him. “No sitting here.” Uh, right… we were outside his turf, yo.

7th August 2005


Everybody recognizes and blogs about Friendster Cafe. What about the Zouk reflexology center nearby?

I went for the Spirit Of Independence gig. (Alright, you’ve seen enough pictures of these bands plus there will be nicer shots later in this entry.) Anyway, who played?

Y2K, Tempered Mental, Dragon Red, Az Samad (in Paul’s New Place for the very first time!), Cosmic Funk Express…

Okay so my excuse is that I forgot to bring extra extra batteries. My extras were already flat!

So anyway, there was Jasemaine Gan, Nao (the Chinese version of seminal rojak-core band LYME. DAMN CHUN!) Then came Soft Touch, Furniture and X-cited Screamers.


So yes, I did take some pictures; Nao is in top-left; X-cited Screamers top-right, and Soft Touch with a kickass bassist with ALL the energy and the lower rock vocals (the raw half I was talking about!), with Jack of 360DHR on guitar!

12th August 2005


See? I told you that there would be good pictures. Zack rips out a classical piece.

Alda elbows his bass.

That night at the Sunrise Mont Kiara Jazz Fest, it was Cosmic Funk Express and an outrageous(ly) bad Outrageous (better pub bands should be playing!)

18th August 2005

I went to the Lost Generation Space for the Not That Balai art exhibition.


Creepy indeed was the refurbished house atop Robson Heights, near Seputeh.


Creepy indeed was the art, too. Yes the computer on the right actually works.


From left, Photoshopped badly: Wolf of Spungy Funggy, Lissa, James of Fallen Leaves, and Izuan Shah of Auburn.


From left to right, top to bottom:

  • Toilet signs
  • Escape into the woods
  • I was about to wash my hands with black toothbrushes
  • An experiment in staring, a screening that got the audience riled
  • The slope actually has tire stoppers!
  • Not only were the inclines crazy, the turns were sharp and narrow

And to think, I was merely there to share the joy of the premiere of the Fallen Leaves – Drown With Me video that had Joy in it.

23rd August 2005


My siblings half-adopted my cousin’s birthday presents – two hamsters; one of which produced a chip out of thin air her stomach.

IMG_3780.JPG – hamster spits out thing and chews it. Also only still picture of it

Happy times. It was very hard to get a picture of them standing (without using camera flash)! Those were the good days before these females starting trying to kill each other. Apparently a male and female hamster will get along, and two males will get along too. Male (hamsters) for peace!

25th August 2005

I headed to the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) in Jalan Ipoh to catch Romi And Joolee Dan Lain-lain, a hilarious Malaysianized take on Shakespeare.


Sentul East – HOME.


I took a scenic 15-minute walk. A bush maze! Have you seen that in Malaysia?


A tractor that looks like something out of Smallville! Have you seen that in Malaysia?


A rusting old factory in the middle of nowhere! Have you seen that in Malaysia?


THE KLPac. It looks like a factory from a European country. Have you seen that in Malaysia?


A lake and some poles without flags on them! Have you seen that in Malaysia?


Okay this is just cool. I bet you’ve seen it before.


The lobby was easily four storeys tall!


Outside, I waited for the show to start.


How much is that doggy in the window?

I was disappointed when a source revealed that Malaysia didn’t actually have such a budget to build a magnificent building out of thin air. It was a recycled showhouse. Still, it was very cool architecture.

Oh right. What about the play? Gavin Yap played many roles excellently; the guys did an excellent rendition of The Beatles – Yesterday (with Rashid Salleh’s solo lines sung in a hilarious Malay voice.) I didn’t have to care about knowing Shakespeare references to laugh at their jokes; a very good thing indeed.

26th August 2005

A day of misfortune, indeed.

I met up Davina, to head to Hartamas, where a minor guilt drama ensued when her friend offered to pick us up from KL Sentral, but his vehicle broke down just as he left Hartamas!


We took a cab to Hartamas JamAsia for the Fretboard Menace gig, supposed to be featuring Deja Voodoo, Az Samad and Cosmic Funk Express. However, Deja Voodoo pulled out and was replaced by Alcentric, a metal band (left in picture). Elliot of Cosmic Funk Express couldn’t make it either and was replaced by Stephanie, an equally energetic and cute drummer. Manshaan of Dragon Red and Izwin also guest-starred-rocked with them.


The promised highlight was the G3-style guitar trio show. They improvised on Miles Davis – So What, and upon calls for encore, wowed the crowd with blues in the key of G.

I then wandered around, bumping into Iris with the saddest expression ever. She had just lost her 3G-capable Nokia 6680 phone!

30th August 2005

After meeting a friend I ended up in Hartamas Square for the Merdeka Eve celebration, with Frequency Cannon, Vespertine, some rappers, Dragon Red, Edge Of Fire, Estranged (with the vocalist on guitar) and then some, but the smell of spraycans was getting to my head and so I left.

2nd September 2005


Guess where these rapids are.


Malaysia’s longest Lego millipede at Ikano.


It had a tail that extended outside. Technically, since there was no record before this, anyone could have made a 10-meter long Lego millipede and called the Malaysian Book Of Records. So that’s the trick!


A tired Lego builder looks upon a long roti tisu.


We left it at this. You’d need maybe 4 hungry people (and lots of drinks) to finish this condensed-milk-laden treat. I stopped because my kidneys started hurting. Serious!

Maybe I should call the Malaysian Book Of Records, to be the first to declare that my site will take over 1MB to download, from all these pictures. Yeah.

The Domino Effect

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Eating at Domino’s seems to be literally a Domino effect. You hit a domino, and another domino falls. So on and so forth until every domino falls, making pretty colored patterns and raking in money for the (not so) fast pizza chain.

Sometime ago, I was bumming around Subang Parade, and I saw Nando’s and was reminded of the last time I had dinner there with Leech. Feeling lucky (I bumped into quite a few people on the same day they contacted me) I called her and whatdyaknow? She was there too.

We went to Domino’s because she had these discount coupons, and we tried the double decker crust pizza. We were also conned by the fine print (details on her blog). I explained the problem to the manager-like person. When the bill came, they gave me those same three discount coupons! We left, and the waitress smiled and thanked me. Leech grumbled, “no need to smile at me ah…”

This wasn’t the first time people in the service industry smile or say goodbye to me, totally ignoring and (thus) incensing whoever I’m leaving the joint with.

I kept the coupons till one fateful day I was in Subang Parade again, and I had a personal pizza this time, using the coupon.

Anyway. I wonder if people only eat at Domino’s because they have coupons. I wonder if people go:

“Hey! So where do you wanna eat?”
“I don’t know… where do you wanna go?”
“Hmmm. Domino’s looks good. Not as thick crusted as Pizza Hut.”
“Hmmm yeah. But do you have a discount coupon?”
“Argh. Nope. Ah well, let’s just go when we do have one.”

Domino’s has never successfully delivered pizza to my office on time. They screw up office extensions! Everytime we collect the pizza, we get a coupon/card so that we get the Domino effect. Sucky service yes, but a brilliant marketing strategy. They know what us cheapskate Malaysians want.

Karma Police

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I was walking in SS2 with a friend when a police car stopped, and two policemen got out.

“Apa you bawa?” (What are you carrying?)

I opened my plastic bag and showed them the Transformers I had just bought.

“Tunjuk IC.” (Show us your ICs.)

We took out our identity cards.

“Korang dari kampung mana?” (Where are you guys from?)

We’re from Petaling Jaya, around here.

“Oh, nama you (masukkan nama Melayu di sini) ya? You tak nampak Melayu.” (Oh, your name is (insert Malay name here). You don’t look Malay.)

My friend explained that his mom was Japanese. The rest of the questions were for me:

“Apa dalam poket ini?” (What’s in this pocket?)

I took out my rechargeable batteries.

“Habis poket itu?” (How about this other pocket?)

I told them that it was my digital camera.

“Korang nak pergi mana?” (Where are you guys going?)

We told them that we were walking to a friend’s house.

“You ada mabuk kah?” (Have you guys consumed alcoholic beverages?)

We told them that we did not, and they said “okay…” and let us off.

I won’t deny that the hair I did not cut for 10 months, my lack of sleep, and my natural grunge cargo pants (it had holes and tears, but in proper places) would make me look like the biggest cocaine bust of the century.

Bumping Does Not Hurt

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YAY Ah-Ha is back on 8TV at 10:30pm, Sundays, as Ah-Ha 2! Catch more educated Malaysian parody by Afdlin Shauki and Harith Iskandar! No, none of that Senario slapstick.

chez1978 has more masked messages to write on our haze masks:

  • What the heck, it was free anyway.
  • I am not disfigured.
  • Darth Vader lives on!
  • If you are reading this, stop staring please.
  • Remove only to plant wet noisy kisses.
  • Got hazed?
  • End your plumbing nightmares. Call Ah Kau at XXX-XXXXXXX now and get a 20% discount. (Remember to make Ah Kau pay for the mobile advertising)

Anyway, this week was an interesting one full of me bumping into people (and no it did not hurt, Cheneille.)

On Friday, an ex-schoolmate called for technical support. I solved his problem, then he asked when I was free. Next week perhaps?

I then headed to the Mont Kiara Jazz Fest to catch Cosmic Funk Express with my colleague, and guess what? My ex-schoolmate came and joined us. He was my colleague’s churchmate. I haev major respect for him, as Paul and him are the only people around my age who paid for their own cars completely without the help of parents (okay there’s the help of a car loan…) Screw you kids who proudly insist “oh this is my car” but forget who paid downpayment.

The next day I was online at the office, and an ex-colleague bugged me about some technical stuff. I then headed to Sunway Pyramid out of boredom, following colleagues to cover an event. Across the crowd, I spotted that ex-colleague! What excellent flow. We met up for some catching up, and she dropped me off at Subang Parade.

I called the affable Nabila but alas! She was in Bangsar. I was thinking of a hearty Nando’s lunch and dinner (it was 6:30pm already!) when I remembered who I last had dinner at Nando’s Subang Parade with – Leech! I called, and found out she was in Subang Parade as well! We then had double-cheesy pizza; interestingly, the extra cheese was in the crust instead of on top, so it wouldn’t slide about, moving the topping with it.

Hannna then called just as we paid the bill, just like the last time, and Leech scuttled off like a crab again.

Yes more pictures will come. Soon.

August Gigs

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What: Uh, a Hartamas Square gig?
When: 8pm Thursday August 4th 2005
Where: Hartamas Square
Who: Broken Scar, Soft Touch, Flatline
How much: Free I suppose, just buy a drink and plop yourself in one of those seats

What: Acoustic guitar workshop with Az Samad and vocal workshop with Shelley Leong
When: 2-4pm Sunday 7th August 2005
Where: The Music Hut, Bandar Damansara Perdana; call 03-77109198 or 012-6510445 for bookings.
Who: Az Samad and Shelley Leong
How much: RM10

What: Spirit Of Independence
When: 4pm Sunday 7th August 2005
Where: Paul’s New Place
Who: Dragon Red, NAO, Furniture, Shelley Leong, Soft Touch, Tempered Mental, Y2K, Cosmic Funk Express, Jasemaine and X-cited Screamers
How much: RM12 and you get a free wristband while stocks last

What: Rock Around The Clock (or Poseidon’s album launch. Kickass shredding!)
When: 6pm Friday 12th August 2005
Where: Paul’s New Place
Who: Borange, Inverted Coma, Vineyard, Fuselage, Stonebay, Warve, Poseidon, Frequency Cannon, Vespertine, Cosmic Funk Express, Beat The System, Infiltrated
How much: RM15 and you get one free drink

What: Mont Kiara Jazz Fest
When: 10pm Friday 12th August 2005
Where: Sunrise Plaza Mont Kiara
Who: Cosmic Funk Express, Outrageous
How much: You can sit in front for free or buy an expensive alcoholic drink and have a seat.

What: The Fretboard Menace
When: 8pm Friday 26th August 2005
Where: KL JamAsia, No. 19-1, Jalan 22A/70A, Plaza Crystalville, Desa Sri Hartamas
Who: Az Samad, Cosmic Funk Express, Deja Voodoo Spells (and they’ll do a G3-style bit at the end! I wonder who the bassist and drummer will be, though…)
How much: RM15 with a free drink; first 20 females get in free.

The reason why I advertise these gigs is because that might actually help instead of telling people how they missed a great performance. And yes, I’m going for all of them. I’ve also been roped in to take pictures for Irene (who will then pass it to the New Straits Times newspaper) so if you wanna appear in the newspaper, look for me and I’ll make you famous. It might help if you looked like you were rocking out. Yes I admit that my digital camera’s picture quality isn’t that great but it was used to take that big mugshot of Frequency Cannon in NST. (Well the photographer ran out of batteries so he borrowed mine…)

The only shaky plans are the acoustic guitar workshop (until I master the art of teleportation) and the jazz fest (since I’ve already seen Cosmic Funk Express and have to take pictures…) Why can’t they have the jazz fest clumped up into a nice Friday night like last year’s, when all the bands I wanted to see all played the same night?